BENGALURU/CHENNAI (Reuters) -Dabur India reported a 2% rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, benefiting from higher demand for its food and beverages, as well as healthcare products from urban pockets of the country.
Net income rose to 3.01 billion rupees ($36.79 million) for the quarter ended March 31, from 2.94 billion rupees a year earlier, the shampoo and hair oil maker said in an exchange filing.
Consumers in large cities in India have been driving sales of consumer goods makers even as their counterparts in rural pockets have been cutting back due to high inflation.
India’s annual retail inflation for March came in at 5.66% versus 6.44% in the previous month.
“In an environment where high inflation continued to impact consumption, we are happy … with broad-based growth in our key categories,” Dabur India Chief Executive Officer Mohit Malhotra said in a statement.
Sales for Dabur’s food and beverages business, which makes a slew of products from aerated fruit beverages to cooking oils, shot up during the quarter.
Its healthcare unit, known for its namesake honey and digestives, also recorded growth.
Dabur also said it offered consumers “promotions” to soften the impact of price increases.
Revenue from operations rose roughly 6% to 26.78 billion rupees, benefiting from a near-45% in its foods business.
Dabur’s peers have reported mixed results, with Adani Wilmar reporting a 60% drop in earnings on lower prices, while Nestle India posted a near-25% increase on higher prices and demand for its chocolates and instant coffee.
($1 = 81.8080 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru and Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
